Therapy that uses your own blood could help with pain from 'tennis elbow'
Thursday, August 25, 2022

by Liz Bonis, WKRC
Access full video HERE

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - A therapy that uses your own blood may be the secret to curing pain from overuse injuries and it may be a timely fix for tennis elbow.

If the Western & Southern Open has you motivated to head back out on the court, sports medicine specialists at OrthoCincy say do not let tennis elbow hold you back.

Its primary symptom is pain in the elbow, and you can get it from other overuse injuries in sports, too.

The good news is you may be able to get it fixed with PRP, a product made from your own blood.

“PRP stands for platelet rich plasma; in something like tennis elbow, which is a tendonitis of the elbow, by injecting some of the portions of your blood into the tendon to stimulate healing,” said Dr. Matt Desjardins from OrthoCincy.

It is performed by simply spinning down your own blood and concentrating the platelets in it.

“You take a vile of blood and then you pull out of it the cells that are involved in tissue healing and those will be the ones that go back into the elbow to stimulate the healing,” Desjardins said.

But it does take a while before you are back in full swing.

“It can take eight to 10 weeks to heal but it’s important to know its geared a tissue healing, a cure, and not just masking the symptoms, so while it’s geared at taking some time, hopefully it's the last treatment they need,” said Desjardins.

In most cases, it is covered by your medical insurance plans.